Pattern producing switching device



March 18,1969 N. PICKLES 3,433,133

PATTERN PRODUCING SWITCHING DEVICE Filed' Dec. 2, 1966 9 R1 r A! A A B If:

III 6 C 0 CF u r----L2 /A 8/ L3 01 'L4 L /0r United States Patent Oflice 3,433,188 Patented Mar. 18, 1969 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A pattern producing switching device for use on a textile machine including a flexible double sided printed circuit with an insulating base separating the sides of the circuit. The printed circuit is mounted on an insulated rotatable drum and the pattern side of the circuit is connected through a slip ring to sources of different potentials thereby producing different potentials for different areas of the pattern. A set of independent brushes sweep the pattern face to receive the voltage signals. Each brush is connected via a buffer amplifier to a voltage step selector that can control different features of a textile machine, such as color, needles or tuft pattern.

My invention relates to means for controlling the threads of a textile machine either individually or in groups, and has for its object the provision of a simplified and cheapened method of effecting such control.

My invention is applicable to such textile machines as Jacquard looms, warp knitting machines, tufting machines for carpets and the like. In all these machines a plurality of yarns or threads is fed to healds or needles, and an action is performed on individual threads, or groups of threads, under the influence of a pattern element. Hitherto such pattern elements have consisted of pattern rollers, punched sheets, or dobby rollers.

Such pattern devices tend to be large, or to consist of many cards or cams. I provide an easily made flexible pattern, capable of being applied to a drum, with the advantages of reduced size, easy interchangeability and low cost.

In one embodiment of my invention, a pattern element is produced in the form of an electrically conductive shape or shapes on a flexible insulating sheet by printedcircuit methods. The pattern itself is drawn by an artist and then reproduced photographically by known etching technique, the result being a metal shape or shapes attached to a thin flexible sheet of insulating material. This pattern element is wrapped round a drum, or made into a band and passed over two rollers, the metal portions being connected by slip rings to a source of electrical potential. The pattern element is then passed beneath a plurality of brushes or contact rollers, connections to which control the pattern producing portions of the textile machine concerned.

In a further embodiment of my invention directed more particularly to the construction of a tufting machine for producing patterned carpets, a plurality of threads is fed to a like plurality of needles. The needles are carried on a common bar which reciprocates vertically, the needles piercing a base fabric during each reciprocation. A pattern element is provided which exerts a control on some or all of the needles, producing either a pattern of high and low tufts, or colours, or both.

Reference should now be made to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a pattern element mounted on a drum, with cooperating brushes;

FIG. 2 is a circuit associated with one pattern brush.

As seen in FIG. 1 I provide a pattern element 1 for a textile machine, in the form of a flexible printed circuit. Such a circuit consists of a sheet of flexible insulating material 11 on both sides of which is applied a thin layer of conducting material such as copper. A pattern 2 is photographically printed on one sheet of copper, which is previously coated with a resist material, and the sheet is then etched away where the copper is not required. The portions of the remaining pattern sectionsare then connected through the sheet by rivets 3 or by similar means such as soldering, to a further pattern 4 of conductors printed on the reverse side of the printed circuit, these conductors being connected by rivets to slip rings 5. The resulting pattern is mounted on an insulating drum 6 and is passed under a number of brushes or contact rollers 7, 8. Various sections of the pattern are connected via the conductors 4, rings 5 and brushes 7 to different electrical potentials, and as each brush 8 passes over the pattern during drum rotation it comes into contact se quentially with various sections of the pattern, these sections being of different potentials depending on the nature of the control to be exercised on the needles.

In the case of the simplest kindof action, i.e., loop length control for a carpet, one potential only need be supplied to the pattern, this potential producing long loops and its absence, short loops. The use of several potentials can produce a corresponding number of loop lengths. Alternatively, the said potentials may produce differing colours. The invention, however, is not limited to two selections only, since several different potentials may be applied, each brush then being connected to a potential-step responsive selector. Each potential step encountered by a particular brush at any instant determining which colour is fed to the needle during the corresponding reciprocation.

This step selector is shown in FIGURE 2, as provided for each brush 8. Here a brush associated with a particular machine needle or group of needles is connected via a buffer amplifier 9 to two diodes R1 and R2. Diode R1 is followed by two Zener diodes ZA and ZB of different breakdown voltages, each such diode supplying a relay A or B with current. Similar but reverse-polarity diodes ZC and ZD are in series with relays C and D. Diodes ZA and ZB conduct at 6 v. and 12 v., respectively, and diodes Z0 and ZD at -6 v. and -12 v. When brush 8 rests on an insulating part of the pattern, no relays operate. Depending on the potential of any particular part of the pattern, the following relay combinations operate.

Relays operated:

From the contact connections A1, B1 C1 and D1 of the relays it can be seen that an earth potential can therefore be applied to any one of five conductors L1-L5 and these are connected to colour selecting mechanisms shown in FIG. 1 at 10. Conductor L1 could for example provide a ground colour, whilst the remaining conductors could supply any one of four pattern colours. More than four potentials could be used.

Although colour selection has been shown as effected by potential steps, it should be understood that frequency or pulse length selection may be used, such alternatives being obvious to a skilled person. Again electronic gate circuits employing diodes and/or transistors could be used instead of Zener diodes and relays, the outputs of the gates operating the colour selecting mechanism directly.

Although the pattern has been described as made by a printed circuit technique it should be realised that it could also be produced by cutting out portions of metal sheet and fixing them to an insulating sheet by adhesive, though this would probably only be suitable in the case of very simple patterns.

Each brush may be connected to a single needle mechanism through the appropriate step colour or length selector, or alternatively each brush may be connected to a plurality of needle mechanisms, so that the pattern is repeated across the width of the fabric produced.

Preferably the electrical outputs of the step selector are connected to hydraulically or pneumatically driven actuators, each of which acts on its associated needle or yarn supply mechanism.

In the case of a Jacquard loom, each step selector controls one or more of the healds of the loom so as to produce a coloured pattern. In the case of a warp knitter, the pattern controls the action of the needles so as to produce the kind of knitting required.

I claim:

1. A pattern producing switching device for use on a textile machine comprising a flexible base member, first circuit means formed on one side of the fiexible base member including a plurality of slip rings and a conductive pattern means, conductive means extending through said base means and electrically contacting the slip rings and pattern means, second circuit means formed on the opposite side of a flexible base member and interconnecting selective slip rings with selective pattern means through said conductive means, source means for simultaneously providing different electrical potentials, means for simultaneously connecting said dif ferent potentials of said source means to respective slip rings, output means adapted to control the pattern forming apparatus of a textile machine, and means connecting said output means to said pattern means upon relative movement between said connecting means and said pattern means upon said base member and means for causing said relative movement.

2. A pattern producing switching device as recited in claim 1 wherein said connecting means for simultaneously connecting said different potentials of said source means to said slip rings are a first set of brushes that slidably contact the surface of the first circuit means and said means connecting said output means are a second set of brushes that slidably contact the pattern means.

3. A pattern producing switching device as recited in claim 2 which further includes a voltage step selector connected to said second set of brushes to respond to the different potentials while said first set of brushes has each brush connected to a different direct potential of predetermined polarity.

4. A pattern producing switching device as recited in claim 3 where the voltage step selector comprises two sets of Zener diodes of different breakdown potentials, one set responding to positive and one to negative potentials and an output means in series with each diode.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 760,302 5/1904 Boucher 20028 XR 2,954,865 10/1960 Hackney et al. 2,984,715 5/1961 Brinster et al. ZOO-24 XR 2,997,412 8/1961 Betts et a1 200-46 XR 3,078,356 2/1963 Friedman et al. 20026 XR JAMES R. BOLER, Primary Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R. 

